Mount Rainier Wildflowers – 3
[Part 3 of 3]
Due to my extended stay at Chinook Pass, I was running a bit behind schedule so I raced to Reflection Lakes as soon as possible. This was to be my first trip up Mazama Ridge and based on some research of the topo maps, I had an idea of where I wanted to be for sunset. As I quickly learned, topo maps only tell part of the story and so I had to venture further and higher up the ridge than I had originally anticipated.
Sunset this particular evening was nothing special and a report estimating peak wildflower blooms in another week also seemed true. Still, several locations had magnificant displays of wildflowers..
Around the official time for sunset, I finally reached higher and more open ground. I scrambled to find a nice foreground and found this stretch of lupine in bloom. It was getting dark and I had to use longer exposures along with a graduated neutral-density filter to balance exposures for the sky and foreground. Bugs were still quite active making for a hasty session. While these photos looked good during a very quick review in the field, they didn’t not live up to their potential once I was back home. Still an amazing place to experience..
